Agricultural Potentials of Dredged Soils of the Lagos Lagoon

Abstract

Development of nutrient sustainable crops friendly agricultural soils of dredged materials from any Lagoon will enhance the economic status and poverty alleviation of resource poor residents of the area. This study investigates the agricultural potentials of the soils dredged from the Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria. The Nigerian West Minister Dredging carried out the dredging and Marines Company located at the Lekki phase 1 project in Lagos, Nigeria in 2004. Four locations identified as S1, S2, S3, and S4 were observed. Soil chemical and physical properties of the locations were analyzed for the determination of their suitability for agricultural activities. Effective area of the sites and volume of soils dredged were determined to confirm the soil heterogeneity. Results showed that land areas constituting S1, S2, S3 and S4 were 95, 120, 150 and 110 m2 with corresponding effective soil volume of 8, 265; 11, 160; 9,300 and 7,700m3 respectively. The soils in the four
locations are generally low in both macronutrients and micronutrients with slightly acidic nature except for available P where soil in location S4 was just within the threshold value.